For Immediate Release, October 1, 2024
Contact: Kassie Siegel, (951) 961-7972, [email protected]
Three Debate Questions for J.D. Vance on Hurricane Helene, Climate Chaos
NEW YORK CITY— As Hurricane Helene’s death toll mounts, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund is urging the moderators of tonight’s vice presidential debate to ask Sen. J.D. Vance three questions about his climate change denial and support for proposals to hamstring federal disaster assistance.
“Vance needs to tell communities devastated by Hurricane Helene why he supports plans to gut disaster relief and cripple efforts to fight climate chaos,” said Kassie Siegel, climate policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. “The horrifying stories out of North Carolina should be at the very heart of the vice presidential debate. Hurricanes will get more and more lethal as our planet heats up, so it’s shocking that Vance and Trump want to increase climate pollution and leave Americans horribly unprepared to weather the storms to come.”
Here are three climate-hurricane questions debate moderators should ask Vance:
1. As scientists call Hurricane Helene a poster child for how climate change is causing more destructive storms, would you retract and apologize for your statement that there is no climate crisis?
2. Will you tell North Carolinians whose lives have been shattered by this storm why you’ve effusively praised the lead author of Project 2025, which proposes to gut FEMA, make it harder for states to get disaster assistance, and block federal agencies from fighting climate change?
3. Since you’ve taken more than $315,000 in campaign contributions from the oil industry, do you think the communities wiped off the map by Hurricane Helene deserve compensation from the fossil fuel companies whose pollution drives climate chaos and extreme weather
The questions for Vance come after Helene caused at least 128 deaths across six states, with hundreds more missing. Millions are without power, and Gov. Roy Cooper says that hundreds of roads and entire communities in North Carolina have been destroyed.
Helene may be one of the most expensive storms in U.S. history: AccuWeather estimates the total damage and economic loss could amount to as much as $110 billion.
“This storm is one of the starkest signs I can imagine that nowhere in America will be safe from climate chaos,” Siegel said. “If Vance and Trump succeed in shutting down climate action, the harm they’ll do to people and the planet will be beyond anything we can imagine.”
The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund is a national nonprofit organization that advocates for legislation and legislators that will advance a progressive environmental agenda. The Action Fund is the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Center for Biological Diversity, but these organizations’ names are not interchangeable. This news release is from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, not the Center for Biological Diversity.